ffpaulen
New Member
I need ideas!
This is going to be long. But if you know your stuff PLEASE read on.
I have had my reef tank for about a year. I am kind of a perfectionist and have a background in chemistry. So I FEEL I have taken pretty meticulous care of my tank. The fish and coral seemed happy and growing. The tank was requiring less and less time to maintain. Water parameters pretty stable. Then, added a powder blue tang and BANG, velvet! Lost about 2/3 of the fish (Tang went first). Treated with PolypLab Medic (recommended by my saltwater store). The 1/3 recovered and I knew that there was velvet in the tank. Hoped for the best. Kept adding fish and again, good times. Then added a brown Tang. (Heard they were more resistant to velvet). Once again…BANG! Lost 2/3 again.
I was about to throw in the towel out of extreme frustration. Instead, bought all of the stuff for a QT tank. Moved the fish to the QT tank (had to destroy the aquascape to do it). Display tank fallow for like 80 days. Treated the fish with copper. Plus bought more since QT was going to happen with everyone anyways. Two saltwater tanks was freaking exhausting!!
So…I put the fish back in about 3 weeks ago. Many of the fish seem unhappy and not acting normal. My snails, all species, are upside down every morning and don’t travel around much. I have also had a Cyno and green hair algae bloom. I have had to treat for phosphates and while elevated, not wildly so. All my parameters test pretty stable the entire time otherwise.
Since things haven’t been improving, I have done two 40 gallon water changes in the past week. System is 210 gallons. Then some bad luck. My auto feeder went crazy and dumped about a weeks worth of food into the tank in a day. Vacuumed. New feeder. GRRR! But in the last 3 days nothings improving. I treated with Chemiclean today.
Some tank details:
210 gallon system
About 20 small fish (Some happy and some don’t seem to be)
Two anemones. Second added during fallow period. Clowns love them. One retreated into the shadows yesterday
Sand sifting star. Alive but doesn’t do much. Stays pretty stationary. I know if he dies he can poison the tank
Multiple corals. But even they don’t seem too thrilled
Clean up crew is probably on the low end but the ones I have don’t do much anyways. I don’t want to buy more snails just to have them die or lie on their backs
Thanks if you have read my tale of woe. Any ideas GREATLY appreciated!
This is going to be long. But if you know your stuff PLEASE read on.
I have had my reef tank for about a year. I am kind of a perfectionist and have a background in chemistry. So I FEEL I have taken pretty meticulous care of my tank. The fish and coral seemed happy and growing. The tank was requiring less and less time to maintain. Water parameters pretty stable. Then, added a powder blue tang and BANG, velvet! Lost about 2/3 of the fish (Tang went first). Treated with PolypLab Medic (recommended by my saltwater store). The 1/3 recovered and I knew that there was velvet in the tank. Hoped for the best. Kept adding fish and again, good times. Then added a brown Tang. (Heard they were more resistant to velvet). Once again…BANG! Lost 2/3 again.
I was about to throw in the towel out of extreme frustration. Instead, bought all of the stuff for a QT tank. Moved the fish to the QT tank (had to destroy the aquascape to do it). Display tank fallow for like 80 days. Treated the fish with copper. Plus bought more since QT was going to happen with everyone anyways. Two saltwater tanks was freaking exhausting!!
So…I put the fish back in about 3 weeks ago. Many of the fish seem unhappy and not acting normal. My snails, all species, are upside down every morning and don’t travel around much. I have also had a Cyno and green hair algae bloom. I have had to treat for phosphates and while elevated, not wildly so. All my parameters test pretty stable the entire time otherwise.
Since things haven’t been improving, I have done two 40 gallon water changes in the past week. System is 210 gallons. Then some bad luck. My auto feeder went crazy and dumped about a weeks worth of food into the tank in a day. Vacuumed. New feeder. GRRR! But in the last 3 days nothings improving. I treated with Chemiclean today.
Some tank details:
210 gallon system
About 20 small fish (Some happy and some don’t seem to be)
Two anemones. Second added during fallow period. Clowns love them. One retreated into the shadows yesterday
Sand sifting star. Alive but doesn’t do much. Stays pretty stationary. I know if he dies he can poison the tank
Multiple corals. But even they don’t seem too thrilled
Clean up crew is probably on the low end but the ones I have don’t do much anyways. I don’t want to buy more snails just to have them die or lie on their backs
Thanks if you have read my tale of woe. Any ideas GREATLY appreciated!
